In celebration of the lustier side of the recent holiday, this trio of books will keep your blood pumping while our pitifully short winter gives way to an early spring. The birds and the bees are back at it, so why not you? Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Story of O are tried and true, but if you’re looking for something a little racier, these three books deliver the goods with masterful prose. Try them out at these three romantic locations.
Henry and June by Anaïs Nin.
Vesuvio, San Francisco, CA
Covering a single momentous year in Paris (and her triangular affair with Henry Miller and his wife June), Anaïs Nin remains an insatiable force in this, the most realistically sexy of books.
Sample lines: “It is like a forest fire, to be with him. New places of my body are aroused and burnt. He is incendiary. I leave him in an unquenchable fever.”
Where: Pick one of the romantic small tables on the second floor of this legendary bar where Jack Kerouac missed a meeting with Henry Miller after getting too drunk to make the date. Celebrate this missed connection by forging your own. Available by MUNI and BART, Vesuvio is located at 255 Columbus Ave.
Poems of a Penisist by Mutsuo Takahashi.
Read at Alchemist Bar and Lounge, San Francisco, CA
Keen on celebrating the male body, Poems of a Penisist is most known for its one-thousand-line erotic fantasy poem, “Ode.” Pick up this radiant, stunning collection — you won’t regret it.